Now living in the narrow concrete streets of Bethlehem's Duheisha refugee camp, Hajjeh al-Jaafari dreams of returning to the town where she was forced to flee sixty-seven years ago.

Well into her mid 80's, Hajjeh remembers the day her family were forced to flee the village of Deir Rafat, west of Jerusalem.

"We thought we would be coming back very soon, we left carrying nothing. My mother put away the lard and yogurt, checked on the cows, goats and hens making sure they were safe until we returned," al-Jaafari told Ma'an.

"But those who returned were killed by the Israelis." After news reached the villagers that those attempting to return were killed, al-Jaafari's family realized going back meant certain death.

The village of Deir Rafat, around 26 km west of Jerusalem, now lies in ruins, having been destroyed by Jewish militias after villagers fled in 1948. Al-Jaafari's family were one of around 500 Palestinians who fled the village, according to Palestine Remembered, a group dedicated to documenting the history of the Nakba.

One of the last remaining members of her family who fled their village that day, al-Jaafari still dreams of the landscapes where she spent her childhood, a place she will never see again. "The key to our home is still with me and I still tell my children and grandchildren stories about our beautiful village," she says, surrounded by bookshelves filled with testimonies of other Palestinian refugees and the history of the Nakba.

"Just spending an hour there would replace all the years of refuge and suffering." More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number over 7.5 million with their descendants -- fled or were driven from their homes in 1948, with the Nakba marked every May 15.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated that the Israeli agendas of ongoing occupation and aggression have failed to end the Palestinian cause, while the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their homeland, and in exile, determined to achieve their legitimate rights.

His statements came during a speech marking the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 when Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine, after destroying hundreds of villages and towns, and depopulating more than 700.000 Palestinians.

“What happened in 1948 will not happen again, our people are steadfast and are determined to stay in their homeland, to defend it and achieve independence,” Abbas said, “United, we will foil all Israeli plans and conspiracies to marginalize the Palestinian cause; we will never accept a state with interim borders.”

“The Palestinian cause is not just the millions of refugees, our cause is a struggle for national liberation, self-determination and dignity,” President Abbas said, “What Israel is doing violates International Law, has no legitimacy; all of its settlements are illegal, East Jerusalem is an essential part of the anticipated independent Palestinian State, it is our capital.”

He added that the popular nonviolent resistance against the brutal Israeli occupation and its colonies is a legitimate struggle that will continue.

“Those responsible for the ongoing Israeli crimes, the atrocities, will be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court,” Abbas stated, “the files of Israel’s colonies and its crimes, including last summer’s onslaught on Gaza, will be submitted to the ICC.”

Commenting on resuming direct political talks with Tel Aviv, Abbas said negotiations cannot resume while Israel is ongoing with its settlement activities in occupied Palestine, and that Israel must release all detainees, especially those who were captured since before the first Oslo agreement.

He added that the Palestinian leadership is not interested in extended political talks that just grant Israel more time to build and expand its colonies, to continue its violations, and said that such talks require a clear time-frame for ending the occupation by the end of 2017.

“The new Israeli government and its head Benjamin Netanyahu must choose between occupation and peace,” the president added, “Should they continue the colonialist policies, we will resume our international activities, including the UN and the ICC, to end this illegal occupation.”

In addition, Abbas said that the internal divisions must be ended, and that all factions are required to place the national interests of the Palestinian people above their own policies and interests, in order to serve the best interest of the Palestinians.

“God willing, we will rebuild what Israel destroyed in Gaza,” he said, “Our national interests are nonnegotiable, we will defend our people, and we will act on providing them with the needed protection.”

Abbas further stated that the Palestinians, in every part of this world, especially in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, must receive with the urgently needed international protection.

He also saluted all Palestinian political prisoners, stating they represent the symbols of sacrifice, determination and unity, and added that ensuring the release of the detainees is a top priority.

A woman looks on at the destruction resulting from Israel's war, Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, July-August 2014

The steadfastness of the Palestinians likens to the age-old olive trees in Palestine who succeed in resurfacing between the European pinesThe 15th of May is usually a trigger for a journey back in time. And for an unfathomable reason each such journey conjures up a different aspect of the Nakba. This year, more than anything else, I am preoccupied with the continued apathy and indifference of the Western political elite and media to the plight of the Palestinians. Even the horror of the Yarmuk camp did not associate in the minds of politicians and journalists alike the possible connection between saving the refugees there and their internationally recognised right of return to their homeland.Israeli medical treatment of Islamists fighting the Assad regime, mending them and resending them to the battlefield is hailed as a humanitarian act by the Jewish state; its exceptional refusal, compared to all the other - and much poorer - neighbours of Syria to accept even one refugee from the Syrian mayhem has gone unnoticed.It is this international exceptionalism and intentional blindness that throws me back to 1948 and to the period between June and October of that year. On 11 June, a truce was announced by the UN between the Zionist forces and the units of the Arab armies that entered Palestine on 15 May. The truce was needed for both sides to rearm, which benefited the Jewish side and disadvantaged the Arab side as Britain and France embargoed the arms shipments to the Arab states, while the Soviet Union and the Czech republic re-armed the Jewish forces.By the end of that truce it transpired clearly that the all-Arab initiative to salvage Palestine was doomed to fail. The truce enabled UN observers to see for the first time, at close inspection, the reality on the ground in the wake of the organisation’s peace planWhat they saw was ethnic cleansing at high gear. The principal preoccupation of the new Israel at that moment was to utilise the truce to accelerate the de-Arabisation of Palestine. This began the moment the guns were silenced and was enacted in front of the eyes of the United Nations observers. By that second week of June, urban Palestine was already lost and with it hundreds of the villages around the main towns were gone. Towns and villages alike were emptied by the Israeli forces. The people were driven out, many of them long before the Arab units entered Palestine, but the houses, shops, schools, mosques and hospitals were still there. What could not have escaped the UN observers is the sound of the tractors flattening these buildings and countryside landscape, now that there was no clatter of shooting around them. What they heard and saw was adequately described as an “operation of cleansing” by the person appointed by the new regime of the land to oversee the whole operation, the head of the settlement division in the Jewish National Fund (JNF), Yosef Weitz. He duly reported to the leadership: “We have begun the operation of cleansing, removing the rubble and preparing the land for cultivation and settlement. Some of these [villages] will become parks.” He proudly scribbled in his diary his amazement of how unmoved he was by the sight of tractors destroying villages.This was not an easy or a short operation. It continued also when the fighting resumed for ten days; at the end of the first truce, during a second truce and in the final stages of the war when the troops that came from Iraq, Syria and Egypt were retreating - wounded and defeated - back home. The “war” in the autumn of 1948 was prolonged because Palestinian villagers, volunteers from Lebanon and some Arab army units tried in vain to defend isolated Arab villages in the north and south of Palestine.Thus, more villages came under the boot of the JNF and its tractors. The UN observers recorded quite methodically the dramatic transformation of Palestine from an Arab East Mediterranean countryside into a kaleidoscope of new Jewish colonies surrounded by European pine trees and huge water pipe system draining the hundreds of creeks that flew through the villages - erasing a panorama that can only be imagined today from several relatively untouched corners of the Galilee and the West Bank.In the beginning of October 1948, the UN observers had had enough. They decided to write an accumulative report to their secretary general. It was summed up in the following way. The Israeli policy, they explained to their boss, was made of “uprooting Arabs from their native villages in Palestine by force or threat”. It recorded the process quite in full and was sent to all the heads of the Arab delegations in the UN. The observers and the Arab diplomats tried to convince the UN secretary general to publish the report but to no avail.But the report featured once more. A unique American diplomat, Mark Ethrtidge, who was the US representative in the Palestine Conciliation Commission - the body appointed by the UN in resolution 194 from 11 December, 1948 to prepare a peace plan for post-Nakba Palestine - tried desperately to convince the world that some facts on the ground were still reversible and one of the means of stopping the transformation was repatriation of the refugees. When the PCC convened a peace conference in Lausanne in Switzerland in May 1949, he was the first American diplomat who pointed clearly to Israeli policy as the main obstacle to peace in Palestine. The Israeli leaders were arrogant, euphoric and unwilling to compromise or make peace, he told John Kimchi, the British journalist working at the time for the Tribune.Ethridge did not give up easily on the issue of repatriation. He had some original ideas. He thought that if he could satisfy Israel’s territorial appetite it would enable some sort of normalisation in post-Mandatory Palestine. He therefore suggested that Israel would annex the Gaza Strip and cater for the refugees there, by allowing them to return to their homes in the villages and town of Palestine. Ben-Gurion liked the idea, as did most of his ministers. The Egyptian government was also in favour. One doubts whether Ben-Gurion would have allowed the refugees to stay in Gaza, but of course there is no telling.Encouraged, Ethridge asserted that now his government could convince the Israelis to repatriate an additional significant number of refugees. Israel refused and the Americans denounced the “obstinacy” of the Israeli politicians and demanded that Israel would allow the return of many more Jews. The Americans decided to suspend the peace effort all together, unless Israel changed its mind; hard to believe today.The Israeli Foreign Minister, Moshe Sharett, was worried about the American pressure that was accompanied by a threat of sanctions and suggested that Israel would accept 100,000 refugees (but would drop the Gaza proposal). What is remarkable in hindsight is that American diplomats such as McGhee regarded both numbers (250,000 refugees of Gaza and the 100,000 offered by Sharett) as insufficient. McGhee genuinely wished to see as many refugees return as possible since he believed the reality on the ground was still reversible.The months went by and by the end of 1949, American pressure subsided. Jewish lobbying, the escalation of the cold war around the world and a UN focus on the fate of Jerusalem as a result of Israel’s defiance of its decisions to internationalise the city were probably the main reasons for this. It was only the Soviet Union that kept reminding the world through it ambassador to the UN and Israel through bilateral correspondence that the new reality Zionism created on the ground was still reversible. By the end of the year, Israel also retracted from its readiness to repatriate the 100,000 refugees.Jewish settlements and European forests were hurriedly planted over the hundreds of villages in rural Palestine and the Israeli bulldozers demolished hundreds of Palestinian houses in the urban area to try and wipe out the Arab character of Palestine.Israeli bohemians, yuppies and desperate newly arrived Jewish immigrants “saved” some of these houses, settled in them and their possession was approved in hindsight by the government. The beauty of houses and their location made them excellent real estate bonanzas; rich Israelis, international NGOS and legations favoured them as their new headquarters.The daylight pillage that began in June 1948 moved the representatives of the international community but was ignored by those who sent them: be they editors of journals, captains of the UN or the heads of international organisations. The result was a clear international message to Israel that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine - as illegal immoral and inhuman as it was - would be tolerated.The message was well received in Israel and immediately implemented. The land of the new state was declared exclusively Jewish, the Palestinians remaining in the land were put under military rule that denied them basic human and civil rights and plans to take those parts of Palestine not occupied in 1948 were put into motion. When they were occupied in 1967, the international message was already incorporated into the Zionist DNA of Israel: even if what you do is watched and recorded, what matters is how the powerful people in the world react to your crimes. The only way to ensure that the pen of recording would be mightier than the sword of colonisation is to hope for a change in in the power balances in the West and in the world in general. The actions of civil societies, conscientious politicians and emerging new states have not yet changed that balance. But one can take courage from the old olive trees in Palestine who succeed in resurfacing beneath and between the Europeans pine trees; and from the Palestinians who now populate exclusive Jewish towns built on the ruins of the villages in the Galilee; and the steadfastness of the people of Gaza, Bilin and Araqib, and hope that this balance will one day change for the better.- Ilan Pappe is Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies and Co-Director for the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies at the University of Exeter.The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Thousands of Palestinians marched, on Thursday at night, in the northern West Bank city of Nablus marking the 67th anniversary of the Nakba, when Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine after depopulating hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns.

The residents carried torches, Palestinian flags and signs affirming their legitimate rights of independence, and return.

Nablus Governor Akram Rajoub stated, “Despite all of Israeli crimes, violations and massacres, the Palestinian people remain steadfast, and determined to achieve their legitimate rights.”

“Marking the Nakba Day is a clear message to the colonialist settlers, the government of this occupation, and all who support them, that the Palestinians will never abandon their rights,” Rajoub stated.

In addition, Nasr Abu Jeish, coordinator of the Palestinian Factions Coordination Committee, stated that this procession is a message to the Israeli occupation that the Palestinians are here to stay, to remain steadfast in their land, in their Palestine.

“Despite the Nakba, the ongoing aggression and crimes, our people are here to stay, in their homeland,” Abu Jeish said, “The struggle continues until liberation and independence.”

More than 700.000 Palestinians were removed from their villages and towns, while at least 530 villages and towns were depolluted and destroyed during the Nakba of 1948, before Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine.

The Intifada Youth Coalition called for a mass participation in a Friday rally, set to kick off from all flashpoints, to mark the 67th anniversary of al-Nakba.

The Intifada Youth Coalition urged Palestinians, from all spectra and factions, to partake in the mass-rallies set to be launched from all flashpoints on Friday, May 15 after noon prayers.

The group reiterated Palestinians’ unyielding commitment to their right of return, saying such is an inalienable right for the individual just as it is for the community and that nobody has the right to give it up or to turn it into a bargaining chip, no matter the circumstances.

The youth coalition spoke out against the silence maintained by the Arab and international communities vis-à-vis the Palestinian cause on the 67th anniversary of al-Nakba.

Friday marks the 67th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, annually observed on May 15 across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Noted political analyst and professor Abdul-Sattar Qasem has accused some Palestinian leaders in the West Bank of selling out Palestine and its people.

"The Nakba anniversary has turned into a seasonal fashion happening on this day every year and used by the Palestinian leaders, who have recognized Israel and renounced the right of return, as political propaganda and for the media," Qasem, a professor of political science at al-Najah university, stated in press remarks to Quds Press.

He expressed his belief that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas lies when he talks about the right of return, stressing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) gave up this right when it decided to recognize Israel in 1988.

Hamas reiterated Thursday, on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of the Nakba, its commitment to armed resistance as the only means to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories.

“National reconciliation can only see the day if the security coordination cord with the Israeli occupation is severed once and for all,” Hamas said in a statement.

“The Israeli blockade tightened around Gaza’s neck is an unspeakable crime and it is even more so when it is committed by people who claim to be nationalists,” the statement read.

“Our people shall never tolerate whoever bears a hand in its blockade,” it added.

“Refugees have no other way back to their native homes, from which they have been forcibly deported, than resistance,” the group further stated.

“We hail our brothers and sisters in the 1948 occupied territories for their unyielding devotion to their identity and land,” it said.

“Expel them from where they expelled you” Hamas said. “Death, destruction, the blockade, and the collapse of ethics, among other tragic upshots of the Nakba, have been the outcome of a digression from such a key-tenet and an inclination towards dishonest interpretations.”

Hijar Hamdan al-Ayess picks off a few yellowing leaves, before pouring water into a hollowed-out pipe filled with soil where she has planted rows of aubergines, cucumbers and tomatoes.

This is her way of escaping the narrow streets of Duheisha refugee camp in the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem, which is home to some 15,000 people who once lived in 45 Palestinian villages that no longer exist.

"The Jews took our land, so to compensate and because we love the land, we decided to set up greenhouses on our rooftops," says Ayess whose parents came to Dheishe in 1952 after fleeing their village of Zakariyya near Hebron.Ayess, who was born in the camp, would like to grow more plants but she has no space left on the roof, so she is making do with what she has while hoping for better days.

"The most important thing is for us to return to our lands, to find them again," she says as the Palestinians prepare to formally mark 67 years since the Nakba, or "catastrophe" that befell them when Israel was established in 1948.

For the Palestinians, the right to return to homes they fled or were forced out of is a prerequisite for any peace agreement with Israel, but it is a demand the Jewish state has rejected out of hand.

Yasser al-Haj, director of Karama, a local camp-based NGO which works to create opportunities for its residents, says that creating these gardens is a way of keeping alive the spirit of lands which today belong to others. "When we cultivate land, it creates an attachment, you become tied to this land and through that to this country," he tells AFP in his office, a map of "Palestine before 1948" on the wall.

'They were wrong'

"The Jews were wrong. They hoped that the generation which lived through the Nakba would die out and that their descendants would forget," he said.But that is not the case.

"The young people have not forgotten and they will never forget," he says as he shows a group of children how to grow tomatoes that he has brought back from Holland: ox-heart tomatoes, striped tomatoes and even varieties which are pink or yellow.Abu Fuad, who will be 100 this year, is one of those forced into exile.

He even took part in the fighting in 1948 "with a gun bought from an Egyptian who was selling weapons dating back to World War I" in order to fight and save his village, Beit Aatab some 40 kilometers from Bethlehem.

More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number around 5.5 million with their descendants -- fled or were driven from their homes in 1948, with the Nakba marked every May 15.Abu Fuad was one of them, leaving his home with everything inside it "because people thought they would come back."Moving from place to place, he finally found a single room measuring just over six square meters which had to provide shelter for 12 people.

With no work and no money, they were forced to rely on the support of the Red Cross and the UN, with the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) today still helping more than five million refugees spread across Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the occupied territories.

A sacred key

When Abu Fuad left his house, he locked it with a heavy iron key which he still guards closely."It is sacred," he says, kissing it and touching it to his forehead.

Over decades of exile this young man wrote poems about his now destroyed home, eventually becoming a great-grandfather, still bright-eyed but going slightly deaf.Before Israel built the separation barrier which now surrounds Bethlehem, he went back to Beit Aatab."I found the place where my school was," he says, his eyes glistening as he recites one of his poems.

"Oh Muslims, Oh Christians, you have too easily abandoned Palestine!" he says, still bitter over the Arab armies who were defeated more than six decades ago.